What Will Be The Next To Go?

People all over the country got the story of the death of the last known dusky seaside sparrow in Florida last month. And there was a whole lot of lamentation and gnashing of teeth.

So what?

It's easier to deliver a eulogy than it is to save a species. In the case of the dusky seaside sparrow, the effort was too little and too late.

Now the grasshopper sparrow is in a similar fix: Only about 300 of the birds are left in the state. Because of continuing threats to its habitat in Central Florida, it too could become extinct. It is the state's rarest bird.

The grasshopper sparrow still can be saved if the state acts now to buy about 55,000 acres of ranchland in south Osceola County to provide a permanent home for the birds. That would require the support of the governor and Cabinet to put the land on a priority list for purchase.

Not only the grasshopper sparrow would benefit. Other animals, including the threatened sandhill crane, the bald eagle and the indigo snake, live there. Maybe even the Florida panther.

An alternative would be to buy rights to land from ranchers, who then would have to leave scrub palms and grasses for homes for the birds. But do something. The rapid extinction of species is a sign that the underpinnings of life are being kicked away. If people can't act to save species like the grasshopper sparrow, then they might as well save the eulogy for themselves.